‘1600 Penn’

A hodgepodge, single-camera sitcom about an impossibly
eccentric First Family, “1600 Penn” stars Bill Pullman as
President Dale Gilchrist and Jenna Elfman as his smarter-than-
she-looks trophy wife Emily.

Though they have four children (including a pregnant unwed
daughter, a 12-year-old lesbian and a precocious preadolescent
nerd), the family wild card comes in the ample form of Skip, the
oafish (but of course loveable) First Son played by Josh Gad
(Broadway’s “Book of Mormon”).

Gad, a producer and co-creator of the series and at 31 a
half-decade too old for this role, seems to be channeling any
number of oversize “Saturday Night Live” comedians, from John Belushi to Chris Farley.

Worse, he looks to have stumbled onto “1600 Penn” from an
entirely different (though no funnier) show.